NAPSI: When it comes to health, making positive lifestyle changes that include losing weight and being more active is a goal for many people. But often times, no matter how good the intentions, these changes only last a few weeks.

Even if you know what to do to improve your health, figuring out how to do it and fitting it into your daily routine can present the biggest challenges.

Making small changes—step by step—can go a long way to help you manage or even prevent many serious health problems and diseases, such as diabetes. For example, if you are at risk for type 2 diabetes, losing a small amount of weight (that’s 10 to 15 pounds if you weigh 200 pounds) can help lower your chances of getting the disease. Try making small but gradual steps to be more active and follow a healthy meal plan. You can start by walking 10 minutes a day and gradually work up to 30 minutes a day, five days a week, and drink water instead of soda at each meal. If you have diabetes, making similar types of changes in your lifestyle can help you reach your blood sugar (glucose), blood pressure and cholesterol goals to prevent serious diabetes-related health problems such as heart attack and stroke.

Getting started
So how do you get started making changes in how you care for your health? It’s all a matter of trying and learning. It’s about choosing a goal and working toward reaching your goal. Making a plan and taking the first step will help you reach your goal.

The National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP) provides a number of tools to help you better understand HOW to make changes in your day-to-day life to help you stay healthy. If you are ready to take the first step toward better health, the NDEP’s Just One Step resource is a great place to start. This tool helps you identify one small step to take for a short period of time (such as one month) to begin to implement healthy changes. Once you have taken a few steps, you may need help making these changes stick as part of a daily routine. This becomes much easier if you ‘Make A Plan.’ NDEP’s Make A Plan tool can help you think about what is important to your health and how to make a plan to help you reach your goal.

The NDEP’s Diabetes HealthSense website, provides easy access to resources that can support people with diabetes and those at risk for the disease in making lifestyle changes and coping with the demands of diabetes.

To find links to resources from the NDEP such as Diabetes HealthSense, Just One Step, and Make A Plan, visit YourDiabetes Info.org/HealthSense.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Diabetes Education Program is jointly sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with the support of more than 200 partner organizations. North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.